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Monthly Archives: February 2013

The Marshall County Behavioral Health Task Force, an ad hoc committee of the County Health Department, will sponsor a mental health first aid training course in Lacon during the first two weeks of April.

The four sessions will be held 9 a.m. to noon on April 2, 4, 9, and 11 at the Lacon-Sparland Fire Department on Illinois Route 17 at the east edge of town.

The 12-hour course, which will be conducted by LaSalle-based North Central Behavioral Health Systems Inc., is intended partly for health care professionals, educators, first responders, and others in related fields. But it also will be open to the public as a public health education service to people who want to learn more about mental health issues.

The topics covered will include risk factors and warning signs of specific illnesses such as anxiety, depression, psychosis and addiction, as well as information about treatment programs. A goal is for participants to become better able to recognize symptoms of possible mental health problems and learn how to respond to situations where mental health needs are identified.

Participants will receive a certificate of completion from North Central. A $10 donation is suggested for the costs of materials that will be provided.

The course is being announced early because space will be limited. To register or get more information, call the county health department (www.marshallcountyhealth.org) at 246-8074 by March 22.

North Central (www.ncbhs.org ) is a non-profit organization serving the counties of Bureau, Fulton, LaSalle, Marshall, McDonough, Putnam and Stark. Funding for the course also is being provided by the Illinois Department of Human Services (www.idhs.state.il.us ).

Gary L. Smith can be reached at (800) 516-0389 or glsmith@mtco.com. Follow him on Twitter at Glsmithx.

The pedestrian and parking barricades shown in this Journal Star photo have been removed from the front of the downtown Lacon building where they had been placed after a city engineer declared the two-story structure at 306 Fifth St. unsafe last April.

But there has been no follow-up engineer’s finding that the former Gray Auto Parts building is no longer unsafe, and the removal of the barricades was apparently based on the word of a new owner who has stated plans to restore and renovate the building with the help of city funds, a City Council committee meeting revealed on Friday (Feb. 22).

After the "unsafe" finding, the city had gone through several months of off-and-on negotiations with longtime owner John Gray of Chillicothe The key issue in those talks was whether they could reach an agreement under which the building would be demolished and the city would acquire the underlying property without going through the time and expense of condemnation and court-ordered demolition, Mayor Bob Weber said on several occasions.

“We could have spent $150,000 on demolition,” Weber said at a December meeting.

Instead, at that meeting, the council tentatively approved an agreement with Richard Hemza, a private contractor who has had previous development dealings with the city over the past 20 years. A former rural Varna resident who now lives near Kankaee, Hemza had expressed interest in acquiring the building directly from Gray and then renovating it if he could get assistance with city funds.

The council tentatively agreed in December to provide up to $20,000 to stabilize the building for safety purposes, including $5,000 up-front and the remainder to be reimbursed for actual expenses. Hemza did acquire the building, according to Marshall County property records, and the barricades were removed several weeks ago.

Friday’s meeting of the council’s finance, purchase, and legal committee meeting, chaired by Jean Davis, included an update on the project. Hemza recently reported that “he has stabilized the front part of the building,” but still has work to do on the long brick sidewall that runs along Washington St., Davis said.

“So he’s not ready to have an engineer come and do a review, which I think we should do,” Davis said.

The committee agreed to move forward to recommend approval at the next council meeting of a formal agreement under which the city subsidy would come from tax increment financing funds. But there should be a clear condition, Davis added.

“Our agreement will be to reimburse up to $20,000 to bring the building into compliance,” she said, “to the satisfaction of the engineers.”

Gary L. Smith can be reached at (800) 516-0389 or glsmith@mtco.com. Follow him on Twitter @Glsmithx.

One of the most intriguing things about the defamation lawsuit that Marshall County engineer and zoning administrator Ed Andrews recently filed against the Lake Wildwood Association Inc. is his claim to have been acting all times in his official county role and with county authority.

For one reason, it raises the question of whether the county could be drawn into the litigation, a possibility that State’s Attorney Paul Bauer is investigating. After all, if Andrews is defending his actions that drew a very harsh reaction from the LWA last year by insisting that he’s just been doing his job, then wouldn’t it stand to reason that relevant county officials would have to confirm or deny that – and support or disavow his actions?

That’s an especially interesting question in light of Andrews’ statement that County Board Chairman Gary Kroeschen told him on Dec. 5 that he would be fired if he did not “cease efforts directed at Lake Wildwood,” which is a gated lakeside subdivision. That would have been two days after Kroeschen was elected chairman.

Kroeschen, a Toluca plumbing and heating contractor, represents a board district that includes part of Lake Wildwood, which is split by a district line. He did not respond to a request for comment.

But the other interesting question arises from the role that Andrews assigns to the County Zoning Committee. That’s an appointed advisory panel currently consisting of four county board members and two others who are not elected in any capacity: County Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman Bill Campion, and Wenona city administrator Bill Simmons.

It was that group that was responsible for enforcement action that included Andrews sending letters threatening Lake Wildwood with $500-a-week fines for alleged zoning violations in a private campground, his lawsuit maintains. The letters, sent over a period of months, are collectively referred to as “the Andrews letters” in the 27-page lawsuit filed in Marshall County Circuit Court.

“In fact, the Marshall County Zoning Committee directed the letters to be sent by Mr. Andrews,” the court document states.

The complication that arises here involves the question of whether that committee had any authority to do such “directing.” The entire county zoning ordinance is available online, but the relevant passage creating this committee lists the following limited “powers and duties:”

To develop and review the provisions of this Ordinance and the zoning district maps and propose changes as needed in the Ordinance. The Zoning Committee chairman shall file Application for Amendment(s) with the Zoning Administrator who shall schedule the amendment for a public hearing with the Zoning Board;

To receive from the Zoning Administrator copies of applications for amendments to the Zoning Ordinance, and to review those applications;

To hold conferences in regard to proposed plan developments under this Ordinance, including the subdivision ordinance; and

To study and make recommendations to the county board on matters pertaining to land use and development that affect Marshall County.

In other words, the committee’s powers and duties are basically limited to recommending ordinance changes or other actions that might be later taken by the county board. There is not a word about enforcement, and State’s Attorney Bauer has told the committee that they have no enforcement authority.

Andrews does, of course. The ordinance specifies that the zoning administrator “shall enforce this ordinance,” and then lists specific duties that include:

“Determine whether a property, building or structure is being used in violation of the Ordinance and notify the owner or occupant of such violation. The Administrator may cite the owner or occupant for such violation, issue a stop work notice, require corrective action to be taken if the violation is amenable to being corrected, or request the State’s Attorney take enforcement action….”

Bauer concluded, at a sometimes boisterous Zoning Committee meeting early last year, that there did not appear to be any evidence of zoning violations at the Lake Wildwood campground and there was no danger of the association being fined. Andrews continued to pursue the matter, and his lawsuit says he still believes he’s right.

Andrews “possessed and continues to possess a good faith belief in the facts and law surrounding the Association’s zoning and floodplain violations,” the document states.

Yet now that he’s seeking personal damages while still insisting that he was acting in his official capacity, he’s pointing his finger back at the county. That committee “directed” that he send the letters that later drew the threat of legal action from Lake Wildwood which Andrews alleges to have been defamatory.

So is it any wonder that the state's attorney is worried about the county being dragged into this?

Marshall County has been the stage of some colorful zoning dramas ever since entering the treacherous world of rural zoning in 1998 with an ordinance that had to be reworked 10 years later after being found unconstitutional. The “Andrews letters” might be another interesting chapter.

Gary L.Smith can be reached at (800) 516-0389 or glsmith@mtco.com. Follow him on Twitter @Glsmithx.

Sparland native Jim Frank has spent his career working in the field of environmental clean-up. He’s now helping to finance a spruce-up in his hometown.

After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Southern Illinois University, Frank worked for the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for 17 years before entering private industry. He and his wife, Speer native Gail Adolphson Frank, now operate Frank Environmental Services, Inc., a Springfield-based firm that specializes in cleaning up sites where water has been polluted by heavy metals.

“We are contract operators of industrial water treatment sites,” said Frank, who spends about half of each year at a Colorado location. “Our speciality is doing that at old mine sites.”

But his scientific background and business haven’t made Frank shy away from the poetic point of view. That became clear after the Sparland Village Board recently voted to name a small local green space Frank Park in recognition of his donation of nearly $5,000 to help further develop the site.

For Frank, that was a way to bring something positive to his hometown, where his 92-year-old mother still lives, while also recognizing the roles that some 25 family members have played in the community since the first Frank came to Sparland from Bavaria in 1856.

“I’m sure that (deceased ancestors) would be amazed to learn that they had a park named after them,” Frank observed.

Village trustee Ron Kingsley, who had been communicating with Frank, pushed for the naming. He also dug out a 215-page book about the area that had been compiled and printed during Sparland’s sesquicentennial celebration in 2005.

The book was edited by Jim and Gail Frank, along with local resident Clarabell Riddell, and articles about the family were written by him and his mother, Margaret Frank. But in addition, he contributed other biographical and personal information in the form of several long poems.

“When there’s a commemorative or emotional event in my life, I often express my thoughts through poems,” he explained recently by phone.

For instance, one such occasion was the closing of the Sparland High School in a 1995 consolidation. That inspired 26 four-line stanzas, beginning:

I am the Sparland School System

I have a story to tell-

Through voices in the classroom

And the ringing school bell.

Come walk down my hallowed halls,

Nostalgic memories remain.

Re-live the joys of your youth,

It's schooltime once again.

Even closer to home was the 1994 closing of Frank’s Hardware, Plumbing & Heating, the business that his parents Tom and Margaret had run for nearly half a century. Other ancestors had worked as skilled tradesmen for a different owner as far as 1906, so Frank concluded his 80-line “Frank’s Hardware Remembered” with this closing stanza:

So long after they are gone, this story is repeated,

In countless Marshall County homes, where skilled craftsmen were needed.

This story is told with reverent care

About that Sparland institution, Frank’s Hardware.

Tom Frank died last year at 92, but Margaret still lives in the house they built in 1950. She was both surprised and delighted to hear about the park project.

“It’s nice to have some good news about Sparland,” she said, referring to various controversies that have cropped up in recent years. “Tom always looked for progress, and I think this is progress.”

In fact, it seems to be further progressing. A relative who now lives elsewhere donated another $500, and Mrs. Frank promptly hand-delivered the check to Kingsley on Tuesday.

“I was impressed. I was shocked,” Kingsley said. “This thing has started to take on a life all its own.”

Jim Frank’s grandfather, William Frank, had been a jack-of-all-trades to an extent unusual even around the turn of the 20th century. He was not only a metalworker and licensed plumber, but even a licensed embalmer for many years.

So perhaps it’s fitting that Frank combines scientific and poetic interests. And he most likely won’t just be writing out chemical formulas as the family prepares for a large reunion that will coincide with a formal park dedication in May.

“I’ve toyed with the idea of writing a poem about the park,” Frank said. “I think that would be a momentous occasion for the Franks.”

Below is another sample of Frank's poetry, about the LaPrairie United Presbyterian Church in rural Sparland.

Gary L. Smith can be reached at (800) 516-0389 or glsmith@mtco.com. Follow him on Twitter @ Glsmithx.

Frequently asked questions about the dirt bike and motocross track being developed in Lacon:

Q: Now that Dan Smith has gone public with his plans to host dirt bike and motocross racing and other events on his Marshall County Sand Trap track at the east edge of Lacon, is there anything that the city or county could do to prevent it from happening?

A: The property is in the Lacon city limits and covered by municipal zoning. So although Marshall County has never shied away from zoning fights, and lost its biggest one over a gravel pit, county regulations would not appear to be a factor in this case.

As for the city, the property is zoned industrial, and Smith says the plan has been thoroughly vetted by his attorney. But that doesn’t necessarily prevent a local government from seeing things differently, which is why there are laws and other lawyers.

Smith himself acknowledged concern about public perception of the noise factor, which he is taking steps to minimize. “When they hear about a track, the first thing people think is noise,” he said.

There are ways, often complicated, for municipalities to legislate against certain noise levels. For a recent perspective elsewhere on a totally different type of noise, for instance, see Steve Stein’s reporting on Morton’s attempts to control the volume of music from a church.

Q: What’s the current use of the property that will be involved?

A: Most has been in row crops, most recently soybeans, while one section was planted a few years ago with aspiring Christmas trees that Smith is now transplanting to create a buffer around the track. No decorations included.

“We moved 63 trees this fall, and I’m planning to move another 50 or 60 in the spring,” he said.

Q: How will this development affect the possibility of a Midland Elementary School being located in that area, which has been the subject of off-and-on past discussions?

A: Three answers: First, although the details of possibly building a school in the industrial park have always been kind of hazy, the discussions have involved city-owned land, which is east of the proposed track site, not private property.

Second, the Lacon City Council voted last fall to restrict property use in the industrial park to…industrial development, of all things. Even if that policy position should change after the April election, there are longstanding businesses that have publicly expressed interest in acquiring the city land for expansion and job-creation. At the very least, that would make it awkward for the city to insist on having a school in a designated industrial area.

Finally, who would seriously want a grade school to be located next to a motorsports track?

Yes, yes, of course, there are all those little hands shooting up right now and young voices shouting, “I would!” and “Yes!” and “That would be so cool!” But they don’t have any real say in this until they’re old enough to run for the city council or school board, at which point they’ll be too busy to pay any attention.

Q: How will this this site accommodate the crowds being projected? Will there be bleachers or other seating for spectators?

A: Smith said he plans to install a couple of bleacher units, but doesn’t expect them to be the seating of choice. One thing being planned is an elevated earthen berm where people can park their folding chairs, blankets, canopies, tents, or whatever they prefer.

“You can bring your lawn chair out and sit on that berm, set your cooler down beside you, and enjoy the afternoon,” Smith said.

Q: Did someone say “cooler?” Does that mean alcohol will be allowed?

A: Again, based on legal advice, Smith is confident that he can allow people to bring their own alcohol onto his property, as long as his business has no role in providing it. If signs of under-age drinking or other problems arise, the response will be swift and sure, he indicated.

A: Good question. While Smith has been up-front about pretty much everything on this project, he admitted that he’s not quite ready to answer, because he’s still running some numbers and calculating the percentages.

On the one hand, he’s doing this as a business, after all, so he needs to have money left over when the bills are paid. But even from a business standpoint, he’s convinced that it’s crucial to offer family entertainment that a family can realistically afford without skipping a car or mortgage payment.

So look for a price structure that will encourage family outings. He said he’ll offer pricing details soon.

Q: So who is this guy, Dan Smith, who’s doing this?

A: Smith is a longtime area resident who now lives in Sparland and worked many years at the Meta Tec plant in Lacon before starting a business repairing and selling parts for antique farm equipment.

Just think about something: How many of the kids in the grade school that will probably never be built in that industrial park would think of saying that their goal would be to start and run such a business when they grow up? Dan Smith did so successfully, and he’s now building on that to bring a new business to Lacon.

“I’ve shipped parts to almost every state in the union, and 23 countries,” he said.

(Confidential, off-the-record note to longtime Marshall County residents: Yes, Dan Smith does bear more than a passing resemblance to former Sheriff Chip Webster. But he insists he is not the retired lawman, who is now off fishing somewhere while more strenuous tasks are handled by others.)

Q: Finally, is Dan Smith related to the Gary L. Smith who wrote the news article and this blog?

A Fortunately for Dan Smith, not even by a shirttail. But conversely, readers should note that no one but Dan Smith will be making decisions about schedules of events, prices of admission, who gets to work there, and other matters related to the business. Please direct those inquiries to him at the contact info available at www.mcsandtrap.com.

For all other questions, comments, and complaints, as usual, Gary L. Smith can be reached at (800) 516-0389 or glsmith@mtco.com. Follow him on Twitter @Glsmithx.